Copyright (c) 2016 Baptist Press. Reprinted from Baptist Press (www.baptistpress.com), news service of the Southern Baptist Convention.
The original story can be found at http://www.bpnews.net/43201/indian-villages-crack-down-on-christians

Indian villages crack down on Christians

NEW DELHI, India (BP) -- Christian minorities in central India face a new threat as Hindu extremists in more than a dozen village councils have passed resolutions imposing restrictions on religions other than Hinduism.

The laws, passed under the guise of stopping false conversions, made Christian prayer, services and "propaganda" illegal, World Watch Monitor reported. The Bastar district president of the World Hindu Council, Suresh Yadav, told The Times of India that more than 50 village councils have banned all non-Hindu missionaries.

The state government of Chhattisgarh, where the tribal Bastar villages are located, has not intervened to strike down the rules but plans to monitor developments, according to the Times. Chhattisgarh Christian Forum president Arun Pannalal told the newspaper that village councils were wrong to think they could pass resolutions that override constitutional protections. Pannalal noted that Article 25 of India's constitution guarantees freedom of religion for all.

Church leaders said the resolutions have already harmed Christians and called for higher government officials to overturn them.

"In some places, the passing of the resolution has been followed by attacks on pastors and pulling down of village churches," Aneesh Andrews, Methodist district superintendent for the region, told World Watch Monitor. He called the restrictions a "ploy to harass Christians" and explained that in some villages Christians have been denied food or access to water. In other towns, Christians have been ordered to leave.

Indian Christian groups urged government officials in Chhattisgarh state to revoke the resolutions, according to Morning Star News.

"The government must reverse the decisions of these [villages] immediately to restore the confidence of the Christian community in the state, which is under considerable stress in recent days," Vijayesh Lal, national director of the Religious Liberty Commission of the Evangelical Fellowship of India, said.

Akhilesh Edgar, a community relations manager for Alliance Defending Freedom India, also condemned the actions.

"These resolutions must be immediately withdrawn, and the state should take strict measures so that non-state actors are prevented from inciting violence," he told Morning Star.

While India's constitution declares that all religions are to be treated equally, persecution still exists and stems primarily from Hindutva, the ideology that equates being Indian with being Hindu and views other faiths as foreign. According to International Christian Concern, Hindu extremists have attacked Christians, discriminated against them and used anti-forced conversion laws to have them arrested.

Christians and other minorities in India have been concerned that their plight will worsen as the result of a landslide victory in May elections by Narendra Modi, head of the Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party. The BJP also swept the parliamentary election in Chhattisgarh state, winning 10 out of 11 seats, according to The Indian Express.

Recent remarks by two BJP elected officials about a "Hindu nation" raised further alarm and stirred up controversy in the state assembly, where cooperation minister Dipak Dhavalikar said he is "confident" that "India will develop into a Hindu nation" under Modi's leadership. Some legislators protested Dhavalikar's remarks with a walkout.

Formed in 1946 by the Southern Baptist Convention, and supported with Cooperative Program funds, Baptist Press (BP) is a daily (M-F) international news wire service. Operating from a central bureau in Nashville, Tenn., BP works with four partnering bureaus (Richmond, Va.; Atlanta, Ga.; Nashville, Tenn.; and Washington, D.C.), as well as with a large network of contributing writers, photographers and editorial providers, to produce BP News.